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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tuesday with Tomlin, preparing for the road show

The Steelers will not have Brett Keisel available this weekend when they travel to Miami. He'll be out with a hamstring injury.

Coach Mike Tomlin is opening things up at the position to see if Ziggy Hood or Nick Eason step up their game to fill that role. But that's nothing new for Tomlin, who likes to pit one player against another rather than simply elevating a guy into a starting role.

Trai Essex is expected return to practice this week after missing the past couple of games with an ankle injury. Doug Legursky has been starting in his place and has played reasonably well. But he suffered an MCL sprain against Cleveland - and returned to the game.

The healthier man will probably start.

Rashard Mendenhall has a bruised shoulder and will sit out early in the week. Tomlin admitted to being concerned with Mendenhall's heavy workload and - as I said on another post this week - look for Isaac Redman to spell him a little more often moving forward in an attempt to keep him a little more fresh.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think most fans would like to see more of Redman toting the ball. Lets just hope its not Moore taking the carries.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Stan Savran for having the stones to actually ask Tomlin about overusing Mendenhall. Unfortunately, no one else was brave enough to question Tomlin on Randle El returning punts and Mewelde Moore ever seeing the field.

Thumbs down to Ed Bouchette. I read him on PG+, and all the guy does is bitch and moan about Tomlin's strategy and personnel decisions. But at the press conference, the best question he can come up with is asking about the depth chart at right guard?

Dale Lolley said...

It took stones to ask about the running back rotation?

Look, there's nothing brave or anything of the sort about press conferences. They're a dog and pony show. Most of the guys who sit there and ask questions are guys who only show up for that day - to be seen on TV. They're not there on any other day - or for Tomlin's press conferences during training camp, which aren't televised.

You don't ask a question at the press conference if you're working on a story about something. What's the sense of asking it there when all you're doing is putting the answer out on television. For newspaper reporters, that defeats our purpose.

Steve-O said...

Good point Dale, it appears there are as many armchair reporters as there are armchair quarterbacks.

Scoop Lolley said...

I don't get it...

Anonymous said...

Isn't one of the purposes of the press conferences for the media to act as a conduit between the fans and the coach?

If so, then why shouldn't we fans expect the media to ask Tomlin questions about the issues we care about?

Anonymous said...

I think most fans would like to see Isaac Redman catch a touchdown pass that he threw to himself while fending off ninja's on the way in the endzone for his 10th score of the day.

Who knows; he may be the closest thing to Chuck Norris we have had on the Steeler's since Lambert. Although James Harrison is making a pretty good case for himself. I think both Norris and Lambert would quit if they were forced to play sissy ball in the modern nfl. Or they would just team body slam Goodell (like Harrison,Smith, and Keisel did to Vince Young)and make Goodell pay their fine.

Mrs. Isaac Redman

Dale Lolley said...

We ask him or other coaches about them in more private settings. If you ask that question at the press conference - and you're a newspaper reporter - you're allowing TV and radio to beat you by 24 hours with the answer.
Again, the televised Tuesday press conference is a dog and pony show for the guys who want to be seen on TV.

Anonymous said...

Got it, I'll ignore the press conferences from now on. On behalf of Steeler Nation, please ask the coaches in a private setting about the following:

1. Why are they running Mendenhall in the 4th quarter of blow-outs? (I know Tomlin semi-answered that one today.)

2. Why does Randle El continue to field punts when he (a) offers no threat of a return, and (b) has muffed a punt in each of the last two games?

3. Why does Mewelde "Little Captain" Moore continue to see the field, considering something bad happens frequently when he's out there (sack, interception, run or pass for less than two yards)?

4. Why does the defense play great for 55 minutes, only to look confused and soft at the end of games?

Thanks, please let us know what they have to say.

Anonymous said...

Since you want him to, I bet Dale is tracking down Tomlin right now to ask those questions...(eye roll).